World Culture: State Hermitage Museum launched "After Raphael. 1520–2020" exhibition

On December 10, 2020, the exhibition "After Raphael. 1520–2020" began its run in the state rooms of the Winter Palace’s Neva Enfilade. It marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Raffaello Santi (1483–1520) and is devoted to the phenomenon of his influence on European art from the XVI century to the present day.

The choice for the central metaphor of the exhibition fell upon the line – the embodiment of interconnection, tradition, dialogue. This line joins together the works of Raphael, Giulio Romano, Parmigianino, Poussin, Rubens, Mengs, Ivanov, Venetsianov, Ingres, Corot and Picasso – and on, right up to artists of our day. The parallels, and on occasion unexpected juxtapositions, with the European and Russian schools are constructed not only on the classic textbook works by the great native of Urbino and his celebrated heirs, but also on lesser-known works from the Hermitage collections are showcased for the first time. The chain of the followers of Raphael linked by ties of artistic continuity is compared to a genealogical line – a succession of descendants going back to a single forefather. One of the goals of the exhibition is to perceive it as a whole, to attempt to comprehend its significance not only for art but for the European culture.

The exhibition belongs to the "exhibition-dialogue" genre – works by artists from five centuries are examined in comparison with Raphael’s art. A thoughtful analysis of this dialogue is capable of shedding light on many things, both in the master's oeuvre and in the art evolution in the Modern Era and beyond. There is a visual demonstration of what this or that artist adopted from this celebrated predecessor and how they then interpreted it.

The large-scale exposition includes more than 300 exhibits – paintings, graphic art, sculpture and applied art from the Hermitage and twelve other collections in Russia and Western Europe. They present both famous masterpieces and previously unknown works. Dozens of paintings and pieces of the graphic art are leaving the museum storerooms and being presented to the public for the first time. A whole number of the exhibits are showcased after careful restoration in the Hermitage workshops.

The main premiere of the exhibition is eight monumental frescoes by the school of Raphael from the Hermitage collection that are being presented to the public for the first time after the restoration begun in 2015 that has revealed the true original paintwork. Some of the frescoes have still not undergone restoration, others are in the process of being uncovered, while work on a third group is practically complete. They all are included in the exhibition. For the first time in the museum’s history, it presents different stages in the rebirth of artwork, a kind of sacramental act revealed to the public.

Also, the exhibition features preparatory drawings and fragments of cartoons for frescoes from the collections of the British Museum and the Albertina – the artistic backstage of Raphael's school.